2016 Bronze Best use of mail

Agency: LIDA

Client: Royal Mail

Campaign Summary:

A letter about mail fraudsters printed on the envelope for anyone to see

Campaign overview

2.7 million people move home every year, with more people renting, but over half do not redirect their mail.

So how to get movers to see that Royal Mail’s postal Redirection service should be top of the moving home checklist?

Strategy

Redirection is a Royal Mail service that forwards mail to a new address when you move.

Sales were in decline as the home mover market slowed. A new audience was needed.

‘Generation rent’ is the growing transient rental mover market (set to grow 33% over the next 10 years), a quarter of which move on from a property after a year.

With post an easy target for identity thieves it’s easy to see why one in four people have fallen victim to ID fraud.

The message shifted from missing out on important mail to identity fraud protection. Royal Mail showed how harmless mail such as an optician’s appointment could leave people at risk.

They matched the fast pace of the rental market, and used rental home movers data from property website Zoopla, triggered a mailing as soon as the data went online.

Creativity

The campaign warned home renters that doormats shouldn’t be welcome mats for thieves.

Talking to an audience with so much planning and packing to do needed a direct message.

Seemingly unimportant mail still delivered to older addresses contributes to the UK’s fastest growing crime, so Royal Mail needed to be faster.

They took a standard C4 envelope and printed the message on the outside to highlight how easy it is for potential fraudsters to see postal contents, whilst ensuring the audience didn’t switch off into denial, by shifting away from scaremongering tactics.

To reduce the hassle of sign-up, the Royal Mail Redirection team was introduced as a supportive helping hand. This ‘inside-out mailer’ helped make the clear connection that leaving mail behind is an invitation to potential ID fraudsters and nudged home renters into putting Royal Mail Redirection at the top of their moving home checklists.

Results

Research shows that direct mail has had real cut-through, as these quotes from Royal Mail Qualibus Research, June 2016, show:

‘Doing it is a real no-brainer, and this really jogs your memory doesn’t it’, ‘I think it’s very unusual. I’ve never seen anyone do something like this with the envelope. People don’t generally do much on the envelope do they?’, ‘It’s making the point through the thing that you are holding. You’re like Oh, OK, I see, and I don’t want people opening my mail.’

There was an 11.1% response rate to cold rental data, compared to the industry average of 3.4%. The campaign successfully targeted rental movers with a triggered mailing and crystal clear message, and delivered a big return, achieving an ROI of 434%.

Team

Heidi Kieran (Head of Customer Marketing) • Dale Hockins (Campaign Marketing Manager) • Bob Udale (Lead Strategist) • Andrew Pogson (Associate Creative Director) • Tony Snow (Art Director) • Terence Bly (Copy Writer) • John Warwick (Copy Writer) • Clary Vikstrom (Mid-weight Designer) • Liam Molloy O’Donnell (Mid-weight Designer) • Philippa Sydney (Production Director) • Kim Thabal (Business Lead) • Gita Mackintosh (Account Director) • Rozzi Meredith (Account Manager)